Slick Holland thrash woeful Ghana

The Netherlands proved to be too strong a side for Ghana in last night's friendly, handing the Black Stars a crushing defeat.

Sunderland loan-star John Mensah came on for the second half in Rotterdam but by then Liverpool's Dirk Kuyt and Rafael van der Vart had given the Dutch a 2-0 lead.

Ghana pulled a goal back midway through the second half but Holland's Wesley Sneider found the back of the net before a Robin van Persie penalty took the scoreline to 4-1, dealing the Ghanaians a crush blow as they prepare for their World Cup campaign.

Ghana have one friendly against Latvia on Saturday prior to their World Cup opener against Serbia on 13 June.

The Black Stars are also in a group with Australia and Germany.

 

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Ghana announce 23-man squad

Bernard Kumordzie, goalkeeper Stephen Adams and midfielder Agyemang Badu were the other casualties from the 29-man squad released by the Serbian late on Saturday as the team prepared to hit Rotterdam for an international friendly against Holland on Tuesday.

Ghana’s Serbian coach settled on his final squad after five days of training in Paris and decided some of his big names were past it ahead for the campaign in South Africa.

The official squad made nonsense of the many rumoured lists that made the rounds in the media in the past weeks and is bound to shock many in the Ghana game too.

Laryea Kingston missed the 2006 World Cup through suspension and was desperate to put in a show in South Africa so much so that he run into trouble into his club side Hearts over his national team commitments.

Hamini Dramani and Eric Addo who both played in Ghana’s first World Cup seemed to have fallen on their poor showing for Ghana at the 2010 Nations Cup in Angola while Emmanuel Agyemang Badu lost out because of an injury he picked up towards the end of the Serie A season.

Rajevac kept faith with John Mensah despite the fact that he had done very little contact training with the squad all week after a season at Sunderland which was blighted by one injury after another. Also in is Quincy Owusu-Abeyie who last played for the Black Stars in Rajevac’s first game in charge back in September 2008.

The squad are now due to arrive in Rotterdam on Sunday ahead of their friendly meeting against Holland on Tuesday before travelling to England to play Latvia in Milton Keynes next Saturday.

Ghana kick off their World Cup campaign against Serbia in Pretoria on June 13 in Group D which also includes Germany and Australia.

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Ghana Squad:

Goalkeepers: Richard Kingson, Daniel Agyei, Stephen Aholu

Defenders: John Paintsil, John Mensah, Samuel Inkoom, Hans Adu Sarpei, Rahim Ayew, Lee Addy, Isaac Vorsah, Jonathan Mensah

Midfielders: Kwadwo Asamoah, Anthony Annan, Sulley Muntari, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Quincy Owusu-Abeyie, Stephen Appiah, Andre Ayew, Derek Boateng

Attackers: Asamoah Gyan, Prince Tagoe, Dominic Adiyiah, Mathew Amoah 
 

Michael Essien ruled out of World Cup

Ghana's chances at the World Cup suffered a huge blow as the talismanic midfielder has been ruled out of the World Cup.

The 27-year-old Chelsea and Ghana midfield player missed a large part of the season due to knee and ankle injuries and has hardly played any competitive football since December.

Milovan Rajevac, the Ghana coach, had hoped Essien would be passed fit for the tournament in South Africa this summer, but the Ghana Football Association today announced he was not expected to be back in action until the end of July.

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“An evaluation by a combined team of medical experts from the Ghana Football Association and Chelsea Football Club revealed that Essien will not make full recovery until the end of July,” a statement read.

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Australia's Socceroos are the first team to land in South Africa

Australia national team the Socceroos are the first of the World Cup teams to arrive in South Africa. the 30 man squad touched down on Wednesday at Johannesburg's international airport.

The 'Socceroos', in Group D with Germany, Ghana and Serbia, boarded a luxury coach for the trip to a hotel in the elite northern Sandton suburb and will start training Thursday at a college in another upmarket area of the South African economic capital.

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Australia have lined up friendlies against Denmark on June 1 and the United States on June 5 in Roodepoort on the western outskirts of Johannesburg.

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Ghana's Serbian coach alleges Serbian intimidation

Ghana's Serbian coach has alleged that the demolition of his house by Serbian authorities is part of intimidation campaign by Serbia ahead of the World Cup clash between the two countries.

Rajevac, a Serbian, is due to lead Ghana out to the 2010 World Cup where their opening game will be against Serbia.

Media reports in Ghana say he has been receiving threatening phone calls to quit since the Black Stars reached the Final of the African Nations Cup in January and now Rajevac is linking the demolition of his mansion to his Ghana job.

The building, in the tourist town of Zlatibor was demolished because town authorities say he didn't have the proper permits to build the house.

The Ghana coach disagrees and is now vowing legal action. "This is a very suspicious move and it is clearly an attempt to stop me from leading the Black Stars to the World Cup," Rajevac reportedly told Ghana soccernet.

"This house has been here for many years and I have all the documents. It is curious that a few weeks to the World Cup they decide to destroy the house.

I have no option than to go to the courts, ask Fifa to look into the matter and also ask the Ghana government to intervene and seek protection for me at governmental levels."

Ghana line up Latvian friendly before World Cup.

Ghana will play a final warm up game against Latvia on June 5 before kicking off their 2010 World Cup campaign on June 13 in Pretoria against Serbia.

The Black Stars, who will prepare for the tournament in South Africa by pitching camp in Europe will meet the Latvians a week after another friendly in England.

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The match will take place at the Plus Stadium of English League side MK Dons in Milton Keynes which has a massive Ghanaian population.

While the Latvians may not be a top draw international side, Milovan Rajevac will be hoping the game will boost the confidence of his side and set them up nicely for the tournament in South Africa in the same manner that warm up games in London against South Korea and Jamaica boosted Stars’ confidence before their fine showing in Germany 2006.

The Latvia game will round up an intense two weeks for the Black Stars who will set up a training base in Paris between May 24-29, play Holland in Amsterdam on June 1 and play the Latvians before flying over to Pretoria for their World Cup campaign.

Three months to go and Ghana vs Germany sold out.

It looks like World Cup fever has hit the good people of Ghana and Germany hard as tickets for their World Cup match in June are already sold out.

Tickets for Ghana's final group D match against Germany at the 2010 FIFA World Cup have sold out.

An advice from FIFA to the Ghana Football Association says there were no more tickets for the Black Stars' match on June 23 in Johannesburg's Soccer City.

The Soccer City has a capacity of 88,460 and will host the opening game between hosts, South Africa and Mexico on June 11 and the final match.

With key matches sold out, Ghana is now left with a limited number of tickets for the other two games between Serbia and Australia.

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Only category one tickets are available for the Black Stars' first two games - against Serbia and Australia.

Meanwhile, the Ghana Football Association has set a deadline, Friday, 19th March, 2010 for payment by all ticket applicants who were successful during the first phase of the 2010 World Cup Tickets sales.

According to the FA, failure to pay within the deadline would result in the applicant’s allocation expunged from the records.

Fans have until April 7 to bid for the second sales phase for tickets at the tournament, which runs from June 11-July 11.

Ghana fails to improve in FIFA ranking

Ghana has hung on to its ranking as Africa sixth best team despite a lacklustre performance since they qualified for the World and Nations Cup.

Ghana however moved up one place in the world, occupying the 37th position in the latest Fifa/Coca Cola rankings released Friday.

Defeats to Benin and Japan in a World Cup qualifier and an International friendly respectively have contributed largely to Ghana's rankings. As they failed to capitalise on being the first African team to qualify.

In November the Stars drew with Mali and Angola but those results will only reflect in the next rankings to be released in December.

Cameroon maintained the first position in Africa, and moved up three places in the world, occupying the 11th position.

Ivory Coast are second in Africa and 16th in the world. Nigeria despite a difficult run in the World Cup qualifier are still third in Africa and 22nd in the World.

Egypt and Algeria have swapped places in the latest rankings, with Algeria now taking over the fourth position in Africa and 28th in the World. Egypt are fifth in Africa and 29th in the World.

Spain have toppled Brazil to take over the first position in the World. Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Germany, France, Argentina, England, Croatia follow in that order.